A Time of War
The exhibition features a small but compelling selection of material related to the Second World War. The majority of images on display were made for official and propagandist purposes–for Government departments such as the Department of Information, which employed a number of very talented professional photographers. One of these was Jim Fitzpatrick whose series of photographs for the Department of Information documented aspects of town and rural life in Drouin, Victoria. Fitzpatrick’s images deal with the lives of ordinary people; they affirm traditional Australian values and make it clear exactly what was at stake during the war years.
Photographs of war-related activities conducted on the home-front–for example, manufacturing military uniforms and printing ration coupons–stressed order and efficiency, underscoring the country’s level of preparedness. All this finally exploded into a chaotic celebration of peace, in an exuberant image of a crowd dancing in Melbourne in 1945.